Chosen Defender
by Arlewena
Summary: Cressa Verena is many things, and for now at least, knows of none of them. Her biggest worry is just making it to adulthood without either her or Dudley ending up in BIG TROUBLE. Unfortunately, whatever mischief they had managed or even imagined in the past, is nothing compared to the storm that is coming her way. A femHarryisPercy story.
1. Prologue: An Unusual Coincidence

**Author's Note: So I've been reading a lot of Percy Jackson and Harry Potter crossovers recently and just had to write one of my own… and this is what happened. I regret nothing.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.**

 **Prologue: An Unusual Coincidence of Circumstance-**

It was no great secret that Lily Evans hated James Potter, and that his long-running quest for her affections had been doomed from the start. His tenacity was admired, and provided an amusing spectacle for the denizens of Hogwarts, but it was widely accepted that his efforts would all be in vain and that he would eventually realize this and find another upon whom to lavish his attentions. So it came as a huge shock to absolutely everyone when James and Lily returned for their seventh year, and not only had Potter made head-boy to Lily's head-girl by some fluke, but that the two were happily dating—having gotten together during the summer. This of course caused much head-scratching, as not even the two's closest friends had known that they even saw each other outside of school. When asked, the two answered, with an air of an inside joke, that they had attended the same summer camp for years. So with one question answered well enough for the time being, the queries turned towards the advent of a changing of relations between the two.

"Potter's an idiot, but he's a good person to have at your back. And if I can trust him to watch my back, I figure I can trust him to watch my heart," was Lily's reply whenever she was questioned on the subject.

James was even more useless, as all anyone could get out of him was an excited exclamation that "If I'd known all it would take was a—well I would have petitioned for one years ago!" He would never give a straight answer when questioned on the abrupt shift, or what he was petitioning for exactly, not even to his closest friends, excluding Sirius, whom seemed to have an idea as to what had happened between the two, but would just shake his head when asked, "Those two have been headed this way for years, I don't know why you're all so caught up on the how."

Eventually the new state of events became normal, and people stopped questioning it. Not to say that the two never fought; their shouting matches were still a sight to behold.

The year passed, everyone graduated from the safety of school into the horror of the war going on outside Hogwarts' walls. To no one's surprise, Lily and the four known as the Marauders were quick to join the resistance, putting up quite a fight for recent graduates. Lily and James quickly became feared on the battlefield, their crazy tactics and strategies taking the other side by surprise time and again—and when they were finally given command of a small group including Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, and Peter Pettigrew; only the most elite Death-Eaters and Voldemort himself could stand against them. Three times their group escaped a direct confrontation with Voldemort without lasting harm.

But something went wrong. The Death-Eaters managed to ambush them, somehow knowing their plans ahead of time—Lily was hit by a spell from the wand of Bellatrix Lestrange, and vanished from the battlefield. James in his grief and fury was a fearsome sight, but the ambush had been well planned, they would not win this battle through strength. So the Prewett twins exchanged a glance and created a distraction before commanding the others to grab James and go. The others heeded their order, and at the end of the day the Prewett twins fell, taking over twenty Death-Eaters with them.

James was inconsolable for a week, before to the surprise of Sirius and Remus, two women appeared in his apartment and told him that the spell had not acted as intended: Lily was alive, but without memory or magic. They then gave him a runed dagger of silver and gold that they claimed was an early wedding gift and would restore her memories and her magic. Somehow they made the words wedding gift sound like a threat… a potent one if the way James paled was any measure. They were gone as quickly as they came, saying only that she would have sought childhood sources of comfort; leaving James with a burning determination that no reasoning could quell. He searched the world for a whisper of her, eventually hunting down her pregnant sister who admitted that if a memoryless Lily was looking for comfort, that she had probably ended up in New York near their cousin. Reluctantly she let him go without her, but told him in no uncertain terms that she better hear from Lily the moment she had her memories back.

The cousin when questioned had not seen her, but suggested she might have gone to their childhood vacation home as she'd always loved it there. At James' insistence, she took him down to the beach where they used to vacation. To their relief, she was indeed staying there in a rented cabin and James was able to restore her memories and magic with the dagger.

However, instead of being relieved upon receiving her memories once more, Lily was highly distraught, and broke down crying for one of the rare times since James had met her. Her story slowly came out through her sobs, and James couldn't find it in his heart to hate her for her betrayal. He was hurt, and jealous, but she had had no memories of him, and it wouldn't have been fair to expect faithfulness from her when she couldn't remember having a boyfriend. When she mentioned the pregnancy and just who the father had been however, he felt a great fear seize his heart. He knew that this could have disastrous and far-reaching consequences.

Yet, looking at her sobbing form, he made the decision to ignore the consequences in light of her happiness. He would take every precaution he could to keep her and by extension the child safe. Her happiness was his greatest treasure. So he soothed her, promised to raise the child as his—his heir even in blood. Nothing could change the love he had for her, much less an honest mistake made in love. He wasted no time, and as soon as her sobs stopped, got down on one knee and produced the ring he had been nervously carrying around since a month before her disappearance and asked her to do him the great honor of becoming Lady Potter. Once more Lily was in tears—but these were tears of happiness.

The new couple after promising to invite Sally to the wedding returned to Britain and war. Their wedding was a beautiful production a few months later, Lily just beginning to show. There was much teasing of the newly-weds and a small spectacle when one of the bridesmaids made a great production of turning down Sirius in a humiliating manner when he would not take no for an answer. The only other disturbance was a happy announcement from another couple that they were also expecting a child—a miracle child as the couple had been trying to conceive unsuccessfully for several years.

Life continued on, Lily and Alice beginning to take a more backseat approach in the war in deference to the growing lives they were housing. James split his attention between Lily, the war, and his research—eventually making a disturbing discovery about the Potter ancestry that conversely both further increased his fear for the child he was beginning to love as if his own and his sense that he was doing the right thing in his current course of action.

All was going as smooth as could be, but the matter of the ambush had not been forgotten, and as more and more attacks seemed to be pre-anticipated, fear began to grow of a spy within the group. Lines were drawn and accusations thrown, splintering the group and throwing off the dynamic. Sirius, with the gift passed down his line began feeling his destiny close in with a sense of impending doom and his decisions began to take on a degree of fatalism and the reckless insanity that cursed the Black line as news of his brother's death reached them.

Finally the limbo broke with the advent of a prophecy:

 _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark them as his equal, but they will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…_

The Longbottoms and the Potters, both expecting in July immediately went into hiding; Lily and James fearing the futility of such an action, but swearing to do all that they could so that their child would come out on top if they were indeed the subject of the prophecy. James was suddenly joined in his frantic research by Lily, and the amount they were now able to go through was staggering with all their time now free. Something however told Lily she needed to focus on the dagger she'd been gifted; and trusting her instincts, most of her research began to slant in that direction.

July finally arrived, both sides holding their breath as the dark and light both appeared to be waiting for something. On July 30 the Longbottoms gave birth to a healthy baby boy whom they named Neville Alexander. A few hours later on the 31st Lily gave birth to a girl whom she named Cressa Verena – much to the dismay of James and Sirius whom had both instantly fallen in love with the child. Lily, James, and Sirius were the only present for the birth bar the midwife, as was custom. As soon as the basic checks were complete, little Cressa was bundled into the next room where rituals were to be performed. First James completed a blood adoption, making the girl truly his as well. Then the ritual confirming Sirius as godfather was performed, transferring enough to make the girl eligible for the Black inheritance should Sirius produce no heirs of his own. Finally, to the bewilderment of the other two, Lily performed another ritual. She would answer no questions about it, and trusting her, the two men dropped it.

Months passed, Cressa and Neville grew rapidly, delighting their families. They learned their first words, took their first steps, and had their first incidents of accidental magic. But outside the happy homes the world grew steadily darker. The enemy was growing restless, impatient as they were unable to find the homes of the children. Their attacks grew more and more violent and daring as the reward for finding the families grew larger and larger.

As Samhain grew nearer, Sirius began feeling the jaws of destiny drawing closer and closer, and fearing that his increasingly reckless behavior coupled with the obviousness of his position would put one of his blood-brothers and his family in danger, urged them to take another as secret keeper. They reluctantly assented and selected the least noticeable of the blood-bound-brothers to put their trust in.

That decision proved, on October 31, to be their undoing.

 **Author's Note: Thank-you for reading. Hopefully you all enjoyed it, either way, I still regret nothing.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Girl Who Lived

**Author's Note: Thank-you everyone who followed, favorited, or reviewed on the prologue. I hope this chapter continues to hold your interest.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. Anything that sounds familiar in this chapter is likely borrowed from Harry Potter, and therefore should be credited to J.K. Rowling.**

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 **Chapter 1: The Girl Who Lived-**

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because, at least to the casual observer, they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde with large blue eyes, and spent her time performing the large number of tasks and chores that seemed to accumulate when one was a stay at home mother. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

Mr. Dursley had everything he wanted, but he also had a secret, and Mr. Dursley's greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. He didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but he hadn't had the misfortune of her presence for at least a year—since that unnatural and disgraceful wedding. Mr. Dursley shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small child, too, but they had never even seen her. This girl was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; he didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.

When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley kept up a steady stream of nervous gossip that she tried to make sound cheerful as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.

None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.

At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.

As soon as he had vanished down the road, Mrs. Dursley relaxed considerably, and perhaps sensing that she was now calm, Dudley's temper tantrum wound down to a few pitiful sniffles. Mrs. Dursley made quick work of the rest of breakfast, and while Dudley was calm, left him occupied with a toy in his high-chair as she quickly cleaned the kitchen.

Making a quick to-do list, she bundled Dudley up into his stroller and they made their way down the road to the nearest supermarket. It wasn't until they were on their way back home, Dudley asleep in the stroller, that she first noticed something strange. There were a lot of people wearing cloaks gathered in groups whispering together excitedly. It set her on edge though she wasn't sure exactly why, other than the fact that her goddess given intuition was telling her that it involved Lily. Her suspicions only increased upon noticing the owls soaring overhead. But the final nail in the coffin was when she passed close enough to make out some of the conversation from one of the groups.

"The Potters, yes, that's what I heard. Extraordinary! Their daughter, Cressa, yes…"

She was filled with a deep sense of foreboding as the group moved on, and practically ran back home where she only paused long enough to put Dudley in his crib and hurriedly put away the groceries before picking up the phone and making an international call.

However, Sally was just as clueless as her; neither of them having heard a thing from Lily since shortly after the wedding when they received a short notice that Lily and James were going into hiding, so contact may be rare. Promising to call if she received news, Petunia put up the phone and struggled to go about the rest of her day normally.

She was taken by surprise when Mr. Dursley finally returned home, and struggled to pull herself together in time to face him. She prattled mindlessly over dinner and was relieved when she could finally escape to put Dudley to bed. She took her time making their evening tea but was blindsided when he asked, "Er—Petunia, dear—you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"

She froze, was this some sort of test? Finally she simply said, "No," before curiosity overcame her and against her better judgement she added, "Why?"

"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."

"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley, starting to become angry.

"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd."

Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips, as Mr. Dursley continued, "Their daughter— she'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't she?"

"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.

"What's her name again? Cassie, isn't it?"

"Cressa."

"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley. He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. Petunia, exhausted mentally from her day managed to fall asleep quickly, not knowing that come the morning her entire life would change, that her world would come crashing down, that a young girl was even now being brought to her doorstep, that wizards and witches around the world were raising their glasses to Cressa Potter—The-Girl-Who-Lived.

 _Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dursley_

 _I am sorry to have to inform you of the passing of Lily and James Potter on October 31st at the hands of the Dark Lord Voldemort. No-one can be certain of what transpired in that house, but Voldemort was banished upon presumably turning his wand on your niece. There are few if any magics that can stand up to the killing curse, and my best guess as to how Cressa survived is that Lily Potter, in order to protect her daughter, offered up her life instead and through her love created a sort of shield that protected Cressa from the killing curse, causing it to rebound upon Voldemort and leave her with only a small scar. With this in mind, I have taken advantage of your blood bond to Lily to create a ward tied to Cressa so that as long as she calls the house of her mother's blood relative home, she will be safe from Voldemort and his followers at least until she comes of age. This ward will also serve to protect you and your family, as long as it is recharged for at the very least 2 weeks a year, though the longer she resides there the stronger it will become. With the passing of Lily and James both, you were next in line along with her godfather, but as he is currently under suspicion for betrayal, the duty has fallen to you. I am sorry once more for being the bearer of bad news, and hope that you will find it in your hearts to love Cressa as your own._

 _Regretfully-_

 _Albus Dumbledore_

 _Headmaster of Hogwarts_

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 **Author's Note: Thank-you all for reading. Hope you enjoyed.**


	3. Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass

**Author's Note: Well here it is, the next chapter. Thank-you to everyone who read, reviewed, followed, and favorited. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, though I sometimes wish I could be that awesome.**

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 **Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass-**

Nearly four years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their niece on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece showed that any time had passed at all. Three years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets – but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a chubby blonde boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, being hugged and kissed by his mother.

The room held no sign at all that another child lived in the house, too. Yet Cressa Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Her Aunt Petunia was awake, and it was her job to ensure that Cressa was awake before the rest of the house.

"Cressa! Time to wake up! It's Dudley's Birthday, so we want to make an extra special breakfast this morning!"

Cressa woke with a start as her Aunt punctuated her sentences with raps on the door. Cressa heard her aunt walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. She rolled onto her back and tried to remember the dream she had been having as she fished around for her dream-journal. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. She pulled her knees up and rested the journal on them as she quickly drew a picture of a motorcycle in the clouds.

Her aunt was back outside the door, "Are you up yet?"

"Coming!" Cressa exclaimed.

"You better get a move on; we have things to do this morning."

Cressa slowly got out of bed and started looking for socks. She found a pair under her bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Cressa was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where she slept. She sometimes even named them when they stuck around long enough. Old George had occupied that same corner for forever.

When she was dressed, she went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden between all of Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the computer game he wanted, not to mention the television and a new bike. She sneakily added her card under one of the boxes, giggling. She then skipped over to help her Aunt cook.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Cressa was buttering the toast.

"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that if she couldn't keep her hair combed then she didn't need to have it so long. Cressa must have run a brush through her hair at least three times a morning, but it made no difference, her hair simply grew that way—wild and all over the place. It didn't really matter though; Uncle Vernon could always be counted on to find something to criticize in her appearance.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Cressa was small and skinny for her age. She looked even smaller and skinnier than she really was because all she had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was at least twice her size. Cressa had high cheek bones, an olive complexion, a mass of silky messy black hair that went just past her shoulders, and bright almond shaped green-blue eyes that changed color depending on the light and her mood. She also had a very thin scar on her forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. She had had it as long as she could remember, and the first question she could ever remember asking her Aunt Petunia was how she got it.

That had led to a very long sit down discussion about a very bad man, who had killed her parents who had loved her very much and had done everything they could to make sure she was okay before they had to leave. It was the first time Cressa could ever remember seeing Aunt Petunia cry.

Cressa was plating eggs by the time Aunt Petunia brought Dudley down to the kitchen. Dudley and Cressa could not have looked more different if they'd tried. Dudley's hair was blond and lay smoothly to her messy dark hair. He was also rather chubby; a good head taller than Cressa, and his skin was fair. His eyes were the same blue-violet of Aunt Petunia's, looking almost black when they were angry.

Cressa put the plates of food on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley was bouncing up and down chanting, "Pwesents! Pwesents! Pwesents!"

"Eat your breakfast first," Aunt Petunia said firmly, guiding Dudley to a chair. He pouted but did as he was told, sending a quick smile in Cressa's direction. When Uncle Vernon was home they weren't supposed to talk or play together.

When breakfast was finished, Cressa gathered the plates as Dudley grabbed the nearest parcel.

"Happy fifth Birthday Dudley," Uncle Vernon said, ruffling his hair.

At that moment the phone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it as Cressa and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the bike, a set of coloring books, a remote control airplane, six new computer games, and four new movies. He was ripping the paper off of a digital wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking worried.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said hesitantly. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take her." She jerked her head in Cressa's direction.

Cressa and Dudley exchanged a hopeful look.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

Cressa's heart gave a horrified leap.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the girl."

"What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca. I suppose we could take her to the zoo…" Aunt Petunia suggested slowly as Cressa began fidgeting.

Uncle Vernon looked mutinous.

Half an hour later, Cressa, who couldn't believe her luck, was sitting in the back seat of the Dursleys' car with Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time. Her Uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with her, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Cressa aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Cressa's, "I'm warning you now, girl—any funny business, anything at all—and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"I'm not going to do anything," protested Cressa.

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe her. He never did.

The problem was, strange things often happened around Cressa and it was just no good telling Uncle Vernon she didn't make them happen.

One time, during pre-school last year, a teacher accidentally put her down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. Aunt Petunia screamed when she came to pick her up and found her happily hissing at and playing with the snake.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force her into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) - The harder she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Cressa. Aunt Petunia had just shook her head at Cressa, winked, and said it must have just shrunk in the wash and, to her great relief, Cressa wasn't punished.

On the other hand, she'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the pre-school kitchens. The local bullies had been chasing her as usual when, as much to Cressa's surprise as anyone else's, there she was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry phone call from Cressa's headmistress telling them Cressa had been climbing school buildings. But all she'd tried to do (as she shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of her cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Cressa supposed that the wind must have caught her in mid- jump.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley a large chocolate ice cream at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Cressa what she wanted before Uncle Vernon could hurry her away, they bought her a cheap lemon ice pop. Cressa didn't care, happy to have gotten one of the cold treats at all. She happily licked away as they watched a gorilla scratching its head.

Cressa had the best morning she'd had in a long time: there was so much to see! Aunt Petunia kept putting an unobtrusive hand on her back so that she didn't wander off on accident. They ate lunch in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his Knickerbocker glory was mostly melted before he could eat it, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Cressa was allowed to finish the first.

Cressa should have known it was all too good to last.

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Cressa wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can – but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils, while Cressa watched from a little distance.

"Make it move!" He excitedly demanded of his father.

Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"This is bowing," Dudley moaned disappointed as he shuffled away, only for a more active snake a little ways down to catch his attention.

Cressa moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. She decided that it was being still on purpose, so that people would leave it alone.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Cressa's.

It winked.

Cressa giggled delightedly, winking at the snake too.

The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, and then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave her a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time"

"That must be really bowing. I wouldn't like it if people knocked on my window and stawed at me all the time."

The snake nodded vigorously.

"You remind me of another snake I met. She was in my nap cot. Aunt Petunia didn't like her very much, but she was a lot of fun. She told me all about the mouse that kept getting away from her."

As the snake gave an interested tilt of the head, a deafening shout behind Cressa made both of them jump.

"DAD! DAD! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

A swarm of kids, including Dudley suddenly came that way, one of them shoving Cressa in the ribs angrily demanding, "Out of the way, you."

Caught by surprise, Cressa fell hard on the concrete floor. What happened next happened so fast no one saw how it happened – one second Dudley was grabbing the kid by the shirt leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they both fell over with howls of horror.

Cressa sat up and gasped; the glass front of the tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor.

As the snake slid swiftly past her, Cressa heard a low, hissing voice say, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amiga."

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Dudley could only gibber. As far as Cressa had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at his heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was gleefully telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, but worst of all, for Cressa at least, was Dudley calming down enough to ask, "Did this one talk like the one at the Pre-School, Cressa?"

Uncle Vernon's jaw went tight, and the atmosphere in the car went icy. No one spoke, barely breathing until they got home. Uncle Vernon grasped Cressa by the arm and roughly dragged her inside. She was so terrified she didn't so much as squeak when she was thrown to the floor of the living room, and Uncle Vernon began to unbuckle his belt. Slowly drawing it out, he only paused long enough to angrily instruct her to hold the arm of the chair and not move a muscle before bringing the belt screaming down on her backside. She screamed as he brought the belt down again and again, 5, 10, 20 times before a wide-eyed Aunt Petunia finally convinced him to stop, at which point she was dragged to her cupboard and told that she would not be coming out for a very long time.

Cressa sobbed herself to sleep, her back, bottom, and thighs throbbing in pain.

Several hours later she was woken by a soft knock on her cupboard, before it was opened, revealing Dudley with a messy peanut-butter sandwich in his hand.

"You didn't get any dinner," he said softly, uncertainly. She sat up slowly, whimpering at the pain.

"Thank-you," she said quietly taking the sandwich and tearing it in half before offering the other half back to Dudley.

He shook his head, but she just offered it more firmly until he finally took it and they ate their prizes quietly in the dark.

"I'm sowy," Dudley finally said.

She looked at him confused.

"Fow getting you in twouble. Dad was scawy," he clarified.

She just nodded.

"Mum looked scawed too," he continued before impulsively throwing his arms around her.

Cressa tensed for a moment, before tears began to slide down her cheeks and she buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing silently.

In the morning Aunt Petunia came down to find them both cuddled up on Cressa's bed, faces tear streaked and peanut-butter on their hands and faces.

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 **Author's note: Thank-you for reading. Constructive critism welcome.**


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